What did you do in the reloading room today?
- Thread starter Mike Overlay
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About six months ago, I stopped flaring and crimping my .45 acp brass. I use a deburring tool to lightly chamfer the inside of the case instead. I use the deburrer in a lathe but a hand drill would work as well. I just briefly touch the case mouth to the tool so this goes really fast. I don't have any problems seating or with bullet retention in the case. I only do this ONCE for the life of the case regardless of how many times I reload that case. I normally shoot 230 gr. fmj. Accuracy with these cases is good. I can consistently stay on an 8" target at 25 yds., which is as good as I can shoot regardless of how I load. The cases feed just fine in my Remington R1 enhanced, as well as a couple of milsurp .45's. Is anybody else doing this? I am going to adopt this procedure with .40s&w as well since it is also a straight wall auto pistol case. I don't believe this will work with a tapered case like 9mm. or with cast bullets. I have tried this with cast and sized 200 gr cast lead bullets and I get shaving. Comments welcome.
I see how this should work. Problem would be I load both cast and jacketed bullets and keeping the brass separate would be a pain in the ass.
I only shoot starline brass this way but that's 90% of my .45 shooting. I load cast bullets in mixed brass for my milsurp guns. If you sort brass by head stamp its really not much trouble.
PepNYC
Well-Known Member
I did a little experiment cleaning my 9mm/223 brass. I just got in to reloading and I have everything except an "official" cleaning apparatus. Dry/wet tumbler, etc. So I tried a method I found online. Hot water, touch of dawn and a teaspoon of lemishine dish washing detergent. The results were better then I expected. Brass came out shiny and very clean inside and out. Removed most of the carbon residue. Then I tried another method. I rebuilt some motorcycle carbs a few years ago and I had a bucket of Berryman chem dip carb cleaner so I figured why not? The chem dip is used for the same purpose we clean the brass. To get the carbon off the brass. Carb jets are brass so I knew it wouldn't hurt anything. Again, very good results. Shiny brass with most if not all of the carbon removed inside. Both methods took about an hour including the time spent drying the brass in the oven after thoroughly rinsing. The lemishine is basically citric acid so couldn't leave it too long. 15-20 mins max with a good shaking here and there. Didn't even have to touch the brass in the chem dip. Drop it in the bucket and let em soak. 30 mins later done. Can't leave the brass in either solution too long or it will ruin the finish. Purely cosmetic but the results were great in the allotted time so no use leaving them in any longer. Honestly, I'm not even sure I'm going to buy a tumbler. I honestly don't see the need at this point. Thoughts?
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I spent a small chunk of this past weekend working in the garage on my new reloading/work bench. I still need screw the work surface down and build at least one shelf under it. I ordered a quick change base/plate, LED light kit and some other goodies from Inline Fabrication for the RL-550B. I organized some brass that needed organizing.
I bought 5000 small pistol primers and I put them on the new bench when I got home. I think that counts too.
I bought 5000 small pistol primers and I put them on the new bench when I got home. I think that counts too.
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Nothing reloading related, except counting bullets. I split an order of 223 bullets with @Sas quatch , 6000 pieces total, so I had to count them out, as they were all loose inside the box. Turns out there were EXACTLY 6000 in the box.
But this week I have been doing work related stuff in the shack - circuit board inspections. I used an old optical microscope I had, and used it to scan for issues, and a cheap USB microscope to take photos.
Finished that up today, so maybe I’ll get a chance to actually get some reloading done now.
But this week I have been doing work related stuff in the shack - circuit board inspections. I used an old optical microscope I had, and used it to scan for issues, and a cheap USB microscope to take photos.
Finished that up today, so maybe I’ll get a chance to actually get some reloading done now.
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Butter
Who’s in charge around here?
Staff member
Charter Life Member
Benefactor
FFL
Multi-Factor Enabled
Too much time in the shop is leading me astray from the normal. Hollow points are cool, the frangible will be a fun project. I was scared to shoot steel up close on the first couple rounds
FatboyFlash
Senior Member
Glad you’re caught up, I’ll send you mine so you can keep busy
Slappy McTrigger
My Own Safe Space
It's all in the Angle.
Yesterday, I wet-tumbled another 5 gallon bucket of 45acp brass. This time, no pins, and tumbled 1 hour. Results look pretty good, the inside of the cases were a little cleaner than I expected, but primer pockets were not very clean - not really a problem, IMHO. Saved some time not having to mess with the pins, I must admit. I want to load a batch and see how they do, especially on the expander where the really clean cases will sometimes stick.
Got back from the range today, where I shot some 9 and 40, but also picked up some 45acp cases and about 50 pieces of 10mm (whoohooo). So I did my usual post-range process of sorting and decapping brass, and cleaned the guns.
Got back from the range today, where I shot some 9 and 40, but also picked up some 45acp cases and about 50 pieces of 10mm (whoohooo). So I did my usual post-range process of sorting and decapping brass, and cleaned the guns.
threw a bunch of old coffee cans out to the garden to make watering pots,and got a grip on the amount of "panic buying" since sandy hook...gonna be a busy summer on the bench.~~~~~~
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Loaded up 200 rounds of 9mm. 125gr LRN Coated. Power Pistol 5.5gr powder. With this stay at home crap I will have a heck of a lot of ammo to shoot up when ever I can get out again.
Finally mounted and set up my turret press. Thanks to @Toprudder for the help with a problem I was having.
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Agreed...makes a huge difference
Loaded 50 rounds of 500 S&W. 500 gr WW Silvertips, 500 gr JSP and 500 gr LGC. All with 13 grains of unique. Pleasant!
Can you tell me what type of LED light that is and where to find it? I would like to add that to my LCT.
Make sure you leave the light on for a few minutes and get the turret holder good and hot with a hair dryer before you try to attach it. Otherwise it might not stick good.
Awesome. Teach them young. They will enjoy the sport and hobby of shooting and reloading.
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